23rd

Before 5am in the morning I've barfed three times already. I saw the toppings of the Hawaian pizza that I ate earlier in the sink since I wasn't able to reach the toilet. It was gross. I haven't barffed that much in my whole existence.

Due to my upset stomach our breakfast out did not push through. I felt such a loser since my family was excited and woke up early. I told them to go ahead without me however they decided not to since it would be different. I woke up at 12:30 and wasn't able to hear mass with my folks.

I arrived at 1 for lunch. When I got there, everyone knew about my condition. Oh great. Since I was not confident with my stomach I wasn't able to enjoy the food. I didn't even get a slice of cake and scoop of ice cream due to the fear that I might throw up or whatsoever.

I slept again when I got home. When I got up again, I dragged myself to dinner which I didn't appreaciate that much due to my condition. I didn't stay that long since I had to hear mass and thank our Creator for giving me life.

And that was how I spent my 23rd year in this world. No small dinner with friends for this year. Tsk tsk.

Coaching 101

There were technicalities before the game. One team did not have a coach so a member of that team, who was suited to play, acted as a coach and did not play. While the other team placed in players who wasn’t in their line up. To top it off, those players weren’t enrolled in the university… ever!

How dim-witted can people be? You know how people are… why not try and break the law… who knows, we might be able to escape it. But if we get caught maybe we can talk it out and get away from it. On the contrary, if all excuses fail, then why not walk out?

Due to these, I did not have the opportunity to hold a pre-game talk… Yesh… You know those motivational speeches and stuff I did not have the chance to draw them up a play or what so ever. Haha. As if. A number of players did not stretch well. The first five on my mind wasn’t the first five. I got giddy. I got butterflies in my stomach.

Where will you find a coach who asked the player if she wanted to play? A coach who inquired if a player should be substituted? A coach who asked for suggestions on what defense to use and offense to execute? A coach who looked for answers from her players? Well, that was the case in my situation.

I would like to think that it was an entertaining game for those who watched. The score was close by the end of the first half. Our opponent had difficulty with the zone defense we had. However on the third period they started to pound it in. We changed our defense but it seemed that “Shaq” was unstoppable. No one was as big enough who can bang bodies with her. Thus by the start of the last quarter we were down by 11.

I thought that the team lost hope during that time since it seemed like we couldn’t find a solution to contain “Shaq”. Rather I had doubts on whether we can catch up. But lo and behold, we started to rally. Unbelievably, they had the legs to run and go into transition ¾ into the last quarter. Due to the fast paced style of game, two of the players wanted a breather. The other signaled a time out towards the official. However, I did not grant their request since we had the momentum. I called a timeout when there was only 9 seconds left and we were only 3 points down but we did not have possession.

The first foul came a lil bit late. During the next inbound pass, the ball went out of bounds but the officials called it the opponents. So, that was the end of it – still down by 3.

All in all it was a great experience for me. I felt the excitement and tension all over again. I wasn’t able to sleep properly last time. Plays were running through my mind. It was technically my first time to be coach. It was real helpful that the team had an idea on how their opponent played. It was also the first time I saw the team be there for each other. I was pleased that everyone gave it their all. Even if we lacked at the end, everyone had smiles on their faces. Despite being undermanned, the team did not give up until the buzzer sounder. Personally, that was how every game should be played.

YM Message

My officemates and I were discussing something with our PM suddenly a ym popped up his screen with this message:

love you...

To save face, our PM laughed it off and commented:

Wala kayo nakita ahh! Wala lang iyon.

Hehe.

Ice Cream-aholic

Since Tuesday we have had ice cream breaks at around 3-4 in the afternoon. No no no... this practice even started LAST week! I do not know if the summer heat is the cause of this craving or what but we always end up having ice cream breaks.

Even if the Jollibee branch at the ground floor of our office has sucky service, we always end up there for their.. Mango Caramel!!! I am a mango fanatic so this dessert suits my taste buds. In fairness, even if they have a sub-par crew my sundae is always overflowing with syrup! Mango Caramel is <3!

The Ube Keso Ice Craze is also a must try. It not just ube and keso in there but macapuno bits as well! Do not worry, they are not thrifty with the toppings. It is enough to give taste to the crush ice.

We made our way to Mini Stop for this popsicle stick called Big Stick. It is this huge popsicle stick which consists of watermelon and melon flavors. I tried it out of curiousity to find out why my officemate is so addicted to it. It was sweet... rather a lil bit to sweet for my taste. I do not agree with her comment... "Basta sa akin masarap.. e alam yo naman yung definition ko na masarap.. masarap para sa lahat". Hmm, I guess I am not a popsie fan. I find it rather stressful to eat it.

This ain't good for my body... as well as my wallet!

Better stop soon!

Noong Una

Cheap young thrills

First posted 02:14am (Mla time)

Jan 25, 2006 By Marla Miniano

Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on Page C4 of the January 25, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BEFORE Lay’s and Hershey’s invaded the Philippine junk-food industry, children of the ’90s happily munched away on their friendly neighborhood sari-sari store’s treasures: candies and chocolate bars, crackers and chips, biscuits and bubble gum. There were corn snacks with little trinkets inside, cookies with colorful icing, and popsicles you had to share with a friend. And the best part of experiencing the junk food rush was this: for P20 or less, you were guaranteed to have a feast between your sticky fingertips.

Texas, Bazooka and Big Boy bubble gum. We loved Texas because it was softer than the other brands, and it stayed sweet for a long time, and we loved Bazooka for the comic strips inside the wrapper. But we loved Big Boy the best because, really, who can ever forget that commercial? All together now, “Big big gum, for big big bubbles!”

may contest pa sa e@t bul@g@... yung palakihan ng bubble... nakompleto ko ata yung buong comic strip e.

Cheezels and Chickadees. They didn’t really taste any different from the usual corn snacks, but they won our hearts because they had toys inside: temporary tattoos and those icky things that would grow when you submerged them in water. They also had the Hop ‘n’ Pop, which, according to one of my friends “was a disaster waiting to happen because it looked like something grownups use; something little kids should know absolutely nothing about.”

oo! bumibili ako nito dahil sa libre! hehehe!

Pritos Ring. The fun was in putting one ring on each finger before eating them up. The fun stopped when you accidentally bit yourself and ended up bawling your lungs out.

uhuh! i felt like a princess with those rings!

White Rabbit and Joy, aka the whistle candy. Simply because the idea of edible paper and candy that creates noise appeals to children of all ages.

minsan nga binibigay ko kay lola yung white paper kasi un malambot di tulad nung kendi mismo... baket ngayon puro un matigas na brown nalang nakikita ko? nakakainis din minsan yung joy kung nawawasak.. hindi na ako maka-whistle!

Iced Gem Biscuits. The cookie part tastes like Marie biscuits, and the icing part tastes like the candy flowers in our birthday cakes. The different colors of the icing were a definite plus.

kinder food! hehehe

Tivoli and Coney Island ice cream. Tivoli’s Funwich gave us sticky fingers and chocolate stains on our white uniforms, but since it was incredibly yummy, we didn’t care about the mess (or, at least, not until our mothers started scolding us). We miss Coney Island’s pistachio and bubble gum-flavored ice cream.

bakit wala na nito?!? sobrang nakaka-miss! tsaka yung eskimo roll!

Nips. Smarties were “cooler” than Nips because they came in tubes, but we loved the latter because they made a rainbow (chocolate Nips), a choco rainbow—and they colored all the flowers, and painted the trees, too. These tiny candy-covered chocolates were such a big part of our life that they even became an acronym for something else: Not In Proper Seat.

maka-nips ako! we make a rainbow!!

Snacku. We were such good little boys and girls back then. See? We ate our veggies without putting up a fight.

hindi ko ito masyadong nagustuhan. haha... kahit nung bata pa ako ayaw ko na ng gulay!

Haw Flakes. Because we were still too young to take Communion, we got someone to play the priest and lined up in front of him so we could stick out our tongues and receive our Haw Flakes. And, surprise surprise, they actually tasted like bread and wine!
body of Christ....

Brown Cow and Horlicks. Before Hershey’s, there was Brown Cow. Before Ovaltine and Ovalteenies, there were Horlicks and Horlicks Malties. We miss getting our chocolate fix from these oldies-but-goodies.
brown cooooooow! horliiiiiicks!!!

Fanta softdrinks. We insisted on drinking nothing else but these, refusing to acknowledge that the orange one tasted exactly like Royal Tru-Orange and the lemon one tasted exactly like Mountain Dew.Nano-Nano. The jingle says it all.
let's fantasize! nano nano....

So. Paging all junk-food manufacturers! Spare us from overpriced potato chips and overrated ice cream, please. If we plan to adapt an unhealthy lifestyle by bingeing on food with zero nutritional value, we don’t want to splurge. The way we see it, we want neither our stomachs nor our wallets to be empty. In our world, these cheap thrills will always rule. Always.

Tristan & Isolde

On Mondays and Tuesdays you only need to pay 99 bucks to watch a movie in Shang. That's cheap already considering the prices at other theaters plus the ambiance. Yesterday I had a slow day at work so I decided to browse at some movies thinking it's a Tuesday.. why not invite someone or whatever. Then I came upon this movie:



I was not sure what it was about. All I knew that it was something like Romeo & Juliet... like what the tagline of the movie stated and based from what I read online earlier yesterday. It caught my attention being the hopeless romantic that I am. It was a coincedence that we watched this since we originally did not have plans of watching at all.

I liked the movie even if it had this old-ish setting. It showed how women can ruin a kingdom. Haha. Kidding. It was a sad movie. Then again, it's a tragedy so what should I expect, right? It depicted this:You were right. Life is greater than death. And love is greater than either.

Awww.

Whoops

I wanted to pee so I stood up and went to the nearest bathroom from my station which was the solo bathroom. I twisted the doorknob, pushed the door, took a step forward and then somebody shreiked "OMG!" I almost bumped into someone who was on her way out! She got so stunned that she stepped backwards and kept saying "OMG!"

What are the chances that two people will enter and exit the same bathroom the same time? I didn't notice there was someone inside since apparently we turned the knob at exactly the same time. I do not know if other people noticed what occured for no one came near us or whatever. I wanted to laugh but I contained myself since she looked super shocked.

Whoops.

Holy Week 2006

We went up the mountains on Wednesday to avoid the traffic. I planned to sleep on the way since were suppoused to leave at 2AM. However things did not go as planned due to other obligations. We left at 8am.

According to the news the weather up there was not that cold anymore compared to the previous years. I beg to disagree. I was hella cold. Then again, I am ginawin. I was able to manage the foggy atmosphere nonetheless which gave a very relaxing ambiance.

There was nothing new there so all we did was eat, sleep, laze around, mahjong and do our lenten obligations. Luckily there weren't much people as before so we did not have much trouble moving around. Well, except during lunch and dinner hours in nearby restaurants.

All in all I had a good time even if the family wasn't complete. The lack of "resources" forced us to semi-bond with each other and relax.

Good Times 0.1

I went to the beach with some of my friends from high school. Oh my gosh, I realized that it was my first time to go out of town with the group. Despite many uncertainties the beach getaway pushed through. Originally the trip was for the whole my3mp. But not everyone was able to make it due to their own personal reasons. I met up with my friend at Shaw then we headed to Magallanes – our meeting spot. When we arrived there one of our friends was already there. Then the my other friend called up her mystery date/ driver and the roadtrip began… We stopped over at Starbuko Tagaytay to stretch and get some coffee. Then continued our roadtrip ‘til we arrived here:

It was like a last minute thing. Initially we were supposed to stay at the rest house of my friend’s lola. However, something came up and we ended up here. The rooms looked okay in the brochure and site but lo and behold… the flooring was different… there weren’t any plants… the veranda flooded due to the aircon which took 10 years to cool…the bed cover was different….blah blah… Nevertheless, the room was alright. We had cable t.v. with travel and living channel!

Good thing we were able to check-in early. We settled down and lazed in the room ‘til we decided to eat. So we headed towards the dining area but we ended up having lunch at the carinderia directly in front of the resort. Sulit!

Afterwards we went swimming in the beach/pond. Uhuh. It was a pond… it was so shallow and calm. I guess that’s how the beaches are in Matabungkay. Good thing that there were rafts. We had a place to hang out. It had a picnic table, a huge reclined bench and a small house. The best thing was that it was for free. Well, that is if the raft was anchored. It costs 800 bucks for 4 hours if we will be dragged further.

The beach was alright even if it was only ‘til knee level and that there were gooey seaweeds and plants underneath. I was able to see creatures underneath... the jellyfish... the mermaid... the merman... the starfish... the mating starfish...

I was super tired that we were able to see the the almost sunset nalang. It was weird actually since all I did was sit on the raft then swam a lil when it got super hot. Chillax! Luckily my friend had this splash proof mp3 player to drown out the endless vidoke.

We had dinner at Dalampasigan!! Yum. Their calamares, tahong, tanigue, hipon, fish, inihaw and something else were delicious! The place had this nativish set up. There were these drooping vines/roots from above. When you enter the resto there was this waterfall/fountain. But it cannot be seen in the pictures. After eating, we headed back to the room and chilled. We drank a bit then went our separate ways.

The next day, we caught some early sunlight and did some adventures. Afterwards, we ate breakfast in the same place we had our lunch then packed our stuff. We weren't able to try their clorine (?) smelling pool anymore due to lack of time.

We had lunch here to satisfy the Bulalo craving of one of my friends. Luckily we were able to get a table even if it seemd that the whole lot of people decided to dine in the same restuarant. Imagine 70 people in one group! Huwow! Then we got coffe again in Starbuko to keep us awake on our way home.

It was my first time to go out of town with my merged group of friends. Memories are cheap… so let the good times roll.

Mean!

Helper: Come... Sit...
Niece *looks terrified*
Manang: Uy, ang taba taba mo na.
Niece *looks like she wants to cry*
Helper: Sit down. Lean back so that we can finish this.
Niece: I don’t like her smell.
Manang: Huwow! Ang kyut kyut mo na. Kamusta ka na?
Niece: *stares*
Manang: Hindi ba siya nakakaintindi ng tagalong? English lang ba? How are you?
Niece says softly: I don’t like her face.

My niece hasn’t attended any of the Sunday reunions for almost a month. She finally showed up today and noticeably she gained weight. Apparently she has been taking steroids for health reasons. Among her illnesses is asthma. Thus she has to vaporize (?) for maintenance and not get sick.

I just hope that Manang did not here hear.

Tsk. Whatta brat! :p

MMNTS 0.1

He knows my name.
He still remembers the time when we were introduced.
He conversed with me.
He smiled at me.

Babaw!

Unplanned

Today was owkay even if the things I planned to do did not push through. Initially my agenda was:

• basketball
• meet up with friend and watch a movie and have merienda/lunch
• IT get together
• fix my room

And my day turned out to be:

The last minute I accompanied my dad to watch this concert at Araneta since my mom had something to accomplish. I did not know what I was getting into. All I knew was that I was on my way to the coliseum to watch the show of some old guy named Rex Smith. I just thought that I had nothing to lose since it was for free. It was also those once in a lifetime experience that would be sayang if I would not grab the opportunity.

Mocca was the openning act. I do not think I have heard of her before. She was alright I guess. Then again, in my opinion she wasn't the right performer for the type of crowd. She sang those recent disco-ish dance songs. Like songs from Pussy Cat Dolls, Usher and the like. All in all I think she was alright. She took the risk to interact with the crowd even if it was obvious that people were restlessly waiting for the main act. Somehow people responded in some parts.

So... yeah... that was Rex Smith. He does not look that OLD naman. In fairness some of his songs were familiar to me who is an illiterate in terms of music. His songs had those romantic/love theme. He's the guy who sang Simply Jessie and You Take My Breath Away. I remember before I used to play Simply Jessie all over again...

"And I don’t know how I knew it

But I knew it somehow

You’re the answer to the question

No one’s answered till now"

No wonder the title of his show was "Forever Rex Smith".

I actually enjoyed the show. At least I get to appreciate "old" music more. More importantly, I got to spend time with my dad.

--0--

After the show, we grabbed a bite to eat. At first my dad did not like to eat out since he said that he was full. Guess what he got? 1 piece burger steak meal and pancit palabok! Riiiiight. That is a meal for someone who was FULL! How ironic. Good thing I nagged him.

--0--

Then I got dropped off at my friend's house. She was home alone since her whole family plus the helper was on a vacation or something. A situation like her's called for an inuman. And that was what occurred.

Drinking tip: same color goes together.